I once met a man in Hanoi who warned me about spending too much time in Thailand.

[KannikaP]

5 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

It's all that discussing Proust in old English that has addled his brain. 

And living up to his namesake.

[Neeranam]

7 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Did you mean 'In the same way I assess people's intelligence whom don't write grammatically'?

It's so ironic when grammar Nazis make grammatical mistake ????

 

[WineOh]

3 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

The secret is to learn the language

I was a lot happier before I could speak Thai.

[BritManToo]

Just now, Neeranam said:

The secret is to learn the language. So many expat I know can't communicate so of course they are going to be affected living here. It must be very lonely when you have to drag your wife everywhere even if you need to change a tyre or get a haircut, which reminds me of a guy who at the same barber as me a year or so ago, acting like a complete <deleted> with hand gestures and silly noises. He told me he had lived here for 12 year

I did but it didn't help me much, beyond eavesdropping.

Most Thais pretend they can't understand me if I  try to talk Thai with them, I've never needed to talk Thai to get a new tire ..... pointing has always worked well enough. Surprised you would use a barber frequented by foreigners, they spread disease you know.

[polpott]

1 minute ago, WineOh said:

I was a lot happier before I could speak Thai.

Try learning Issan. The things those bar girls say about you when they think you don't understand. If you're not thick skinned (I am) your self esteem could hit zero very quickly.

[Neeranam]

1 minute ago, WineOh said:

I was a lot happier before I could speak Thai.

I hear you as I had some unpleasant remarks made when I started learning. However, When you get more fluent, I think it affects your body language, attitude etc, so people recognize you as Thai, more often.

[Pilotman]

6 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I did but it didn't help me much, beyond eavesdropping.

Most Thais pretend they can't understand me if I  try to talk Thai with them, I've never needed to talk Thai to get a new tire ..... pointing has always worked well enough. Surprised you would use a barber frequented by foreigners, they spread disease you know.

I find shouting slowly and loudly and adding mai to the end of words? helps them to understand, after all, it's their fault they can't speak the Queen's English, (we will gloss over Americans and other colonials dubious ability to do that) rather than mine that I can't speak their unfathomable language. We didn't build an Empire learning other peoples languages.  ???? 

Edited February 24, 2021 by Pilotman

[Neeranam]

29 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

My kids in the Uk are miserable, my kids in Thailand are happy.

I would be too if I had to live there, I do however, want to retire there in 3 years for 6 months of the year but in a little but n ben near a loch, away from others most of the time. 

[WineOh]

5 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

However, When you get more fluent, I think it affects your body language, attitude etc, so people recognize you as Thai, more often.

so if I speak fluent thai with immigration will that negate the need for me to go there anymore?

will they also presume I am thai?

 

Might be worth trying that ???? 

[polpott]

2 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

I hear you as I had some unpleasant remarks made when I started learning. However, When you get more fluent, I think it affects your body language, attitude etc, so people recognize you as Thai, more often.

You'll never be recognised as a Thai. No matter how well you speak the language you will always be a farang. Personally I take that as a great compliment as I wouldn't want to be known as someone who is thick, lazy and has one of the smallest penises in the world.

[Neeranam]

38 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Sorry, the most miserable negative people I have met here are from the UK.

Maybe they miss the weather or something can never figure it out.

Someone told me I do not understand their sense of humor.  OK, thanks must be that then.

 

We have a Colonial attitude, but when the local fail to see our superiority, we get a bit peeved. 

[KannikaP]

13 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

It's so ironic when grammar Nazis make grammatical mistake ????

 

An S on mistake maybe!   LOL

[Neeranam]

1 hour ago, Denim said:

 

It's old age that does that to you. Nothing to do with living in Thailand. Hence the term ' grumpy old men '

 

I'm only a half misanthrope as I still like women with a passion , its just the males I avoid.

I think most males avoid other males where I live as they don't want to compare their girlfriends/wives. What can you say to someone who met his wife in the Pink Pussy bar?

[Neeranam]

1 minute ago, KannikaP said:

An S on mistake maybe!   LOL

It was intentional to see if other ones would responid ????

[WineOh]

1 minute ago, Neeranam said:

What can you say to someone who met his wife in the Pink Pussy bar?

Where is that mate?

[Fat is a type of crazy]

If you met him 30 years ago then he had just lived in Thailand say between 1957 and 1990. That  is a  different Thailand.

Hard  to get around, expense to visit home,  no or little western food or access to western entertainment and news, hard to communicate  with your own kind .

 

Sure, better beaches and less tourists back then, but it is easier now to have the best of both worlds. 

[BritManToo]

5 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

I think most males avoid other males where I live as they don't want to compare their girlfriends/wives. What can you say to someone who met his wife in the Pink Pussy bar?

I met my Brit schoolteacher wife in a bar ......... so what?

In fact, once I was old enough to enter bars, every relationship I ever had started in a bar. 

(if you lived in the west you'd understand a relationship with a woman from work will likely end in dismissal)

Most women enter relationships for gain of some sort, why would I assume yours was different or care where you met her? 

Edited February 24, 2021 by BritManToo

[Neeranam]

2 minutes ago, WineOh said:

Where is that mate?

Nana Pong

[Pilotman]

14 minutes ago, polpott said:

Try learning Issan. The things those bar girls say about you when they think you don't understand. If you're not thick skinned (I am) your self esteem could hit zero very quickly.

I don't think what they say about a farang who just wants to screw them has any relevance to him. 

[KannikaP]

7 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

I think most males avoid other males where I live as they don't want to compare their girlfriends/wives. What can you say to someone who met his wife in the Pink Pussy bar?

I tell them I met mine in the Cosy Bar.

[holy cow cm]

13 minutes ago, WineOh said:

I was a lot happier before I could speak Thai.

Don't buy this statement unless you are still learning how to really speak good conversational Thai and have Thai take you seriously when you open your mouth rather than looking at you perplexed like you are speaking nonsensible. Getting past that point of squawk stutter Thai talk of thinking you can do it talk which takes years and years made the difference of happiness for me. Same in the USA as here. I am not interested in talking to every Tom-Dick Harry or Sally, but talking to Thai people here is a heck of a lot more fun than talking to every foreigner.

[holy cow cm]

19 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I did but it didn't help me much, beyond eavesdropping.

Most Thais pretend they can't understand me if I  try to talk Thai with them, I've never needed to talk Thai to get a new tire ..... pointing has always worked well enough. Surprised you would use a barber frequented by foreigners, they spread disease you know.

Seems like a game of degrading non Thai with them and nothing about the actual speaking. You ever see the Thai news or shows that will have a Thai Yai or Mountain Thai speaking on camera? Even though the person speaks quite ok they will still put written Thai at the bottom like sub titles when they speak. Even my Thai family agrees this is racist to a point. But maybe speaking Thai and getting this attitude may or could make you become withdrawn and more unpleasant.

[holy cow cm]

25 minutes ago, polpott said:

Try learning Issan. The things those bar girls say about you when they think you don't understand. If you're not thick skinned (I am) your self esteem could hit zero very quickly.

Have you ever listened to what they say about each other? Try living/visiting Issan 30 years ago with a gal. Now that was tough.

[polpott]

13 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

I don't think what they say about a farang who just wants to screw them has any relevance to him. 

You'd be dead wrong there. A lot of their comments are about your performance in the room. Trust me, they can be very complimentary.

[BritManToo]

6 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

Seems like a game of degrading non Thai with them and nothing about the actual speaking. You ever see the Thai news or shows that will have a Thai Yai or Mountain Thai speaking on camera? Even though the person speaks quite ok they will still put written Thai at the bottom like sub titles when they speak. Even my Thai family agrees this is racist to a point. But maybe speaking Thai and getting this attitude may or could make you become withdrawn and more unpleasant.

Quite often they put Thai subtitles because the speaker isn't speaking Thai at all.

my MiL doesn't speak Thai, but a Petchabun/Lomsak village language, when she comes to visit in MaeJo there's only around four locals in our village that can converse with her.

[Pilotman]

5 minutes ago, polpott said:

You'd be dead wrong there. A lot of their comments are about your performance in the room. Trust me, they can be very complimentary.

You just don't get it do you?  Any bar roving farang worth his salt doesn't give a monkeys what she says about his 'performance', its all about  her performance and him getting his value for money, he will not be in the slightest bit interested  in her, her satisfaction, or her critique, unless it suits him. 

[holy cow cm]

5 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Quite often they put Thai subtitles because the speaker isn't speaking Thai at all.

my MiL doesn't speak Thai, but a Petchabun/Lomsak village language, when she comes to visit in MaeJo there's only around four locals in our village that can converse with her.

I am only referring to when they are speaking Thai and not another dialect language. There are variations of different Thai languages off the main stream..

[holy cow cm]

15 minutes ago, polpott said:

You'd be dead wrong there. A lot of their comments are about your performance in the room. Trust me, they can be very complimentary.

Yeah or knowing enough to hear them trying to tell you: you too big.

[polpott]

Just now, holy cow cm said:

Yeah or knowing enough to hear them trying to tell you: you too big.

I've had that but always managed to talk them round in the end.

[AlfHuy]

3 hours ago, darksidedog said:

I used to be the life and soul of the party, but then I became a moderator!

A BLOCK-erator or BANN-erator.

 

Sorry, couldn't hold that one back ????